Lighting systems are increasingly being used to provide an enriching experience and improve productivity, safety, efficiency and relaxation. Light systems are becoming more advanced, flexible and integrated for many domains including professional domains like the retail and hotel domains, as well as the home domain. This change is stimulated by the advent of LED lighting (Light Emitting Diodes or Solid State lighting). It is expected that LED lighting systems will proliferate due to increased efficiency as compared to today's common light sources, as well as to the ease of providing light of changeable light attributes, such as color and intensity.
Advanced lighting sources, systems and networks are able to provide light of desired attributes and preset light scenes. Conventional scene setting control is done by creating pre-sets that may be selected by a user. For example, a user create a desired scene by adjusting the settings (color, light intensity) of the individual light sources and store the result in the memory as new pre-sets or overwrite existing pre-sets.
In a room with more two or more light sources, several light scenes may be created. With controllable light sources that may be dimmable and color-changeable, a user has the opportunity of creating a dazzling number of scenes in a space. In order to support and facilitate different activities in a room with the right light, users or people need some freedom to manipulate the light scene, e.g., to change the light output and the light balance among the different light sources. Accordingly, it is desirable to allow setting comfortable and pleasing scenes in an intuitive way without too much difficulty or training.
If these light sources are dimmable and the number of light sources increases such as above five, the number of possible scenes increases enormously. Traditionally, light scenes are created by setting the dimming or intensity level of each light fixture separately. Untrained users typically have difficulty finding the optimum setting. Further, control of individual light sources is tedious.
A straightforward solution for controlling light scenes is individual control of each light source, lamp or fixture, as is often the practice in the home, such as in living rooms, or by using pre-sets as is the case in commercial buildings, like offices and shops. However, individually controlling light sources, and fine-tuning all the dimmable lamps, to achieve or choose desired settings is complicated, particularly for five or more lamps. Also, without training, the result might be non-optimal. Further, although pre-sets are simpler to use, however customization is not possible.
Conventional user interfaces for lighting control include defining, selecting and changing light scenes, as described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0193913 to Pyle, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Another user interface for lighting control includes graphically representing a view of a space to be lit, as described in European Patent Application Number EP 07111416.9, filed on Jun. 29, 2007, assigned to Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Other lighting control systems include independently controlling light sources as described in International Patent Publication WO 2006/008464 to Summerland, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Further lighting control systems include dividing a lighting network with addressable light sources into zones for easier control and creation of light scenes, including execution of lighting programs or scripts to provide desired scenes, as described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0076908 to Morgan which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
In addition, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0183475 to Boulouednine, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes controlling two groups of light sources, namely, where a first power source controls two lights sources of the first group for providing two colors, and a second power source controls a third lights source of the second group for providing a third color. One controller is provided for controlling both power sources, while a second controller is provided for controlling only the second power source. In another lighting control system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,118,231 to Geiginger, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, the total luminosity or brightness in a room is adjusted by changing a ‘volume’ parameter, and the ratio between light intensities of two light sources or groups of light sources is adjusted by changing a ‘balance’ parameter. This is achieved by adding or subtracting a value dS to parameters of the two sets of light sources or groups. In particular, when dS is added to both sets (dS1=dS2), then the total brightness is increased with no change in the ratio, and when dS is added to one set and subtracted from another set (dS1=−dS2), than the ratio is changed with no change in overall brightness.
Despite such advances, there is a need for a more intuitive scene setting control systems and methods that enable fast and comfortable creation of light scenes by untrained users and avoid the tedious way of controlling individual light fixture settings and customizing light scenes.
Accordingly, there is a need for simple light control systems that control grouped light sources to change the light attributes of the light groups to allow simple selection and customizing of light scenes.